For manufacturers, having clear visibility into their supply chain is crucial for efficient operations and meeting customer demands. NetSuite offers robust capabilities for inventory, procurement, fulfillment and more to enhance supply chain transparency. This allows manufacturers to gain real-time insights, coordinate processes, and make data-driven decisions across their business.
Understanding Supply Chain Challenges
Supply chains have become increasingly complex, especially for manufacturers sourcing components and managing production globally. Issues can arise from unreliable suppliers, unexpected delays, quality problems, and more. This makes having reliable visibility challenging.
Some key difficulties manufacturers face include:
- Fragmented Systems – Disparate software systems between departments, partners, etc. lead to information gaps and manual processes. This causes lack of coordination and delays.
- Inventory Blindspots – Not having tracking between warehouses, trucks, stores results in out-of-stocks, write-offs, and excess inventory.
- Reactive Purchasing – No visibility into future demand makes purchasing reactive. This leads to rush orders and higher costs to expedite.
- Extended Lead Times – Supply shortfalls and delays from suppliers cause longer lead times. This results in inability to meet customer delivery dates.
How NetSuite Enhances Visibility?
NetSuite manages the entire supply chain on a unified cloud platform. This connects data across departments and partners for real-time understanding of operations. Some key ways NetSuite does this include:
1. Unified Platform
- Single system between manufacturing, inventory, accounting, CRM and HR
- Real-time data visibility across the entire supply chain
- Automated processes improve efficiency and accuracy
2. Manufacturing Management
- Engineering – Product data, Bill of Materials (BOM), work orders
- Planning – Materials Requirements Planning (MRP), demand forecasting, production scheduling
- Shop Floor Control – Inventory allocation, machine scheduling, quality management
3. Inventory Management
- Real-time visibility into inventory across all warehouses
- Lot and serial number tracking
- Streamlined cycle counts improve accuracy
- Rules for replenishments, transfers, adjustments
4. Procurement Management
- Automated POs and approvals
- Dashboards for spending analysis
- Supplier scorecards for performance management
5. Order and Warehouse Management
- Omnichannel order orchestration and fulfillment
- Pick/Pack optimization
- Shipping management with leading carriers
With these capabilities, manufacturers gain complete visibility into their supply chain operations. This allows them to effectively meet customer demand while controlling costs through greater efficiency.
Benefits of Improved Visibility
Supply chain transparency provides manufacturers substantial benefits:
1. Increased Operational Agility
With an integrated system, manufacturers can swiftly respond to issues as they arise and adjust operations accordingly.
2. Faster Order Fulfillment
Improved inventory accuracy ensures components and finished goods availability leading to faster order fulfillment.
3. Enhanced Supplier Collaboration
Analytics provide insights to improve supplier relationship management.
4. Better Demand Planning
Access to real-time data facilitates accurate demand forecasting and planning.
5. Reduced Costs
Inventory and procurement optimization prevents stockouts, write-offs and rushed orders – reducing costs.
With these advantages, manufacturers can successfully overcome key supply chain challenges.
Why Choose Anchor Group?
Anchor Group has years of experience with hundreds of manufacturing clients. Our ERP consultants leverage deep NetSuite expertise to guide companies through the entire process from planning to post go-live optimization.
Some key reasons to choose Anchor Group include:
1. Proven NetSuite Expertise and Experience
Our team has extensive experience across manufacturing, distribution and retail industries optimizing business processes.
2. Superior Inventory Management
We help clients maximize inventory visibility and accuracy with barcode scanning, cycle counting strategies and warehouse management.
3. Strategic Roadmap
Our strategic roadmap approach ensures continued optimization of the NetSuite platform beyond just initial implementation.
4. Focus on Change Management and Adoption
With every project, we emphasize role-based training and communication plans so employees understand and adopt new processes.
5. Dedicated Support Post Go-Live
After go-live, clients have a direct line for ongoing inquiries and additional feature enhancement requests.
The combination of NetSuite’s unified cloud platform along with Anchor Group’s rich expertise equips manufacturers to overcome supply chain blindspots. This leads to more strategic operations driving revenue growth, profitability and competitive advantage for long-term success.
Contact Anchor Group today to learn more about how we can help you improve visibility into your supply chain with NetSuite.